Data timeliness
| Characteristic Name: | Data timeliness |
| Dimension: | Currency |
| Description: | Data which refers to time should be available for use within an acceptable time relative to its time of creation |
| Granularity: | Record |
| Implementation Type: | Process-based approach |
| Characteristic Type: | Usage |
Verification Metric:
| The number of tasks failed or under performed due to lack of data timeliness |
| The number of complaints received due to lack of data timeliness |
GuidelinesExamplesDefinitons
The implementation guidelines are guidelines to follow in regard to the characteristic. The scenarios are examples of the implementation
| Guidelines: | Scenario: |
|---|---|
| Recognise the activity/event that generates the time sensitive attribute values and specify rules to generate attribute values. | (1)Efficiency of production line 1) Line out quality check which signifies the end of manufacturing of a product in a lean manufacturing line. 2) The number of products which passed the line out quality checks per given time period is the efficiency of the line |
| Specify the valid time period for the values of attribute to be recorded | (1) The growth of the bacteria should be measured after 15 hours of culturing (2) Efficiency should be calculated and recorded once in every 10 minutes starting from the first 10th minute of an hour (six times per hour) |
| Specify the valid time period for the values of attribute to be used | (1) The exchange rate for the day is valid from 8 am to 8am the following day |
Validation Metric:
| How mature is the creation and implementation of the DQ rules to handle data timeliness |
These are examples of how the characteristic might occur in a database.
| Example: | Source: |
|---|---|
| stable data such as birth dates have volatility equal to 0, as they do not vary at all. Conversely, stock quotes, a kind of frequently changing data, have a high degree of volatility due to the fact that they remain valid for very short time intervals. | C. Batini and M, Scannapieco, “Data Quality: Concepts, Methodologies, and Techniques”, Springer, 2006. |
| the quotation of a stock remains valid for only a few seconds irrespective of architectural choices | C. Cappiello, C. Francalanci, and B. Pernici, “Time-Related Factors of Data Quality in Multichannel Information System” in Journal of Management Information Systems, Vol. 20, No. 3, M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 2004, pp.71-91. |
| For example, patient census is needed daily to provide sufficient day-to-day operations staffing, such as nursing and food service. How- ever, annual or monthly patient census data are needed for the facilityís strategic planning. | B. Cassidy, et al., “Practice Brief: Data Quality Management Model” in Journal of AHIMA, 1998, 69(6). |
| consider a system where each user must change own password every 6 months. Those passwords without been updated during more than 6 months, are not valid in the system, and can be treated as absolute stale elements | O. Chayka, T. Palpanas, and P. Bouquet, “Defining and Measuring Data-Driven Quality Dimension of Staleness”, Trento: University of Trento, Technical Report # DISI-12-016, 2012. |
| Consider a database containing sales information for a division of a company. This database contains three years’ worth of data. However, the database is slow to become complete at the end of each month. Some units submit their information immediately, whereas others take several days to send in information. There are also a number of corrections and adjustments that flow in. Thus, for a period of time at the end of the accounting period, the content is incomplete. However, all of the data is correct when complete. If this database is to be used to compute sales bonuses that are due on the 15th of the following month, it is of poor data quality even though the data in it is always eventually accurate. The data is not timely enough for the intended use. However, if this database is to be used for historical trend analysis and to make decisions on altering territories, it is of excellent data quality as long as the user knows when all additions and changes are incorporated. Waiting for all of the data to get in is not a problem because its intended use is to make long-term decisions. | J. E. Olson, “Data Quality: The Accuracy Dimension”, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 9 January 2003. |
The Definitions are examples of the characteristic that appear in the sources provided.
| Definition: | Source: |
|---|---|
| A measure of the degree to which data are current and available for use as specified and in the time frame in which they are expected. | D. McGilvray, “Executing Data Quality Projects: Ten Steps to Quality Data and Trusted Information”, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2008. |
| Domain Level: The data element represents the most current information resulting from the output of a business event. Entity Level: The entity represents the most current information resulting from the output of a business event. | B. BYRNE, J. K., D. MCCARTY, G. SAUTER, H. SMITH, P WORCESTER 2008. The information perspective of SOA design Part 6:The value of applying the data quality analysis pattern in SOA. IBM corporation. |
| The “age” of the data is correct for the Knowledge Worker’s purpose . Purposes such as inventory control for Just-in-Time Inventory require the most current data. Comparing sales trends for last period to period one-year ago requires sales data from respective periods. | ENGLISH, L. P. 2009. Information quality applied: Best practices for improving business information, processes and systems, Wiley Publishing. |
| Determines the extent to which data is sufficiently up-to-date for the task at hand. For example, hats, mittens, and scarves are in stock by November. | G. GATLING, C. B., R. CHAMPLIN, H. STEFANI, G. WEIGEL 2007. Enterprise Information Management with SAP, Boston, Galileo Press Inc. |
| Timeliness of data refers to the extent to which data is collected within a reasonable time period from the activity or event and is available within a reasonable timeframe to be used for whatever purpose it is intended. Data should be made available at whatever frequency and within whatever timeframe is needed to support decision making. | HIQA 2011. International Review of Data Quality Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), Ireland. http://www.hiqa.ie/press-release/2011-04-28-international-review-data-quality. |
| The currency (age) of the data is appropriate to its use. | PRICE, R. J. & SHANKS, G. Empirical refinement of a semiotic information quality framework. System Sciences, 2005. HICSS'05. Proceedings of the 38th Annual Hawaii International Conference on, 2005. IEEE, 216a-216a. |
| Timeliness can be defined in terms of currency (how recent data are). | SCANNAPIECO, M. & CATARCI, T. 2002. Data quality under a computer science perspective. Archivi & Computer, 2, 1-15. |
| 1) The age of an information object.
2) The amount of time the information remains valid in the context of a particular activity. |
STVILIA, B., GASSER, L., TWIDALE, M. B. & SMITH, L. C. 2007. A framework for information quality assessment. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 58, 1720-1733. |
| The age of the data is appropriate for the task at hand. | WANG, R. Y. & STRONG, D. M. 1996. Beyond accuracy: What data quality means to data consumers. Journal of management information systems, 5-33. |
Accuracy to reality
| Characteristic Name: | Accuracy to reality |
| Dimension: | Accuracy |
| Description: | Data should truly reflect the real world |
| Granularity: | Record |
| Implementation Type: | Process-based approach |
| Characteristic Type: | Usage |
Verification Metric:
| The number of tasks failed or under performed due to lack of accuracy to reality |
| The number of complaints received due to lack of accuracy to reality |
GuidelinesExamplesDefinitons
The implementation guidelines are guidelines to follow in regard to the characteristic. The scenarios are examples of the implementation
| Guidelines: | Scenario: |
|---|---|
| Continuously evaluate if the existing data model is sufficient to represent the real world as required by the organisational need and do the necessary amendments to the data model if needed. | (1) A student who received a concession travel card is not eligible for a concession fare if he terminates his candidature before completion of the course. Hence the data model should have an extra attribute as "current status of candidature" |
| Perform regular audits on mission critical data to verify that every record has a meaningful existence in the reality which is useful for the organisation | (1) All customers existing in the customer master file actually a customer in the customer space open for the organisation. (non customers are not in the customer file) (2) "Greg Glass" is recorded as a glass work company but in fact they are opticians (3) A person's personal details taken from his educational profile may not be a correct reality for his insurance profile even though the information is |
| Perform regular audits on mission critical data to verify that every record has a unique existence in the reality | (1) It is difficult to find out that the professor "Andrew" is from Colombia university or from the university of Queensland |
| Ensure that Information available in the system is accurate in the context of a particular activity or event | (1) The driver details taken from vehicle registration may not be accurate in the case of finding the real person who drive the vehicle when an accident is caused |
Validation Metric:
| How mature is the process to ensure the accuracy to reality |
These are examples of how the characteristic might occur in a database.
| Example: | Source: |
|---|---|
| if the name of a person is John, the value v = John is correct, while the value v = Jhn is incorrect | C. Batini and M, Scannapieco, “Data Quality: Concepts, Methodologies, and Techniques”, Springer, 2006. |
| Percent of values that are correct when compared to the actual value. For example, M=Male when the subject is Male. | P. Cykana, A. Paul, and M. Stern, “DoD Guidelines on Data Quality Management” in MIT Conference on Information Quality - IQ, 1996, pp. 154-171. |
| an EMPLOYEE entity (identified by the Employee-Number
314159) and the attribute Year-of-Birth. If the value of Year-of-Birth for employee 314159 is the year the employee was born, the datum is correct. |
C. Fox, A. Levitin, and T. Redman, “The Notion of Data and Its Quality Dimensions” in Journal Information Processing and Management: an International Journal archive, Volume 30 Issue 1, Jan-Feb 1994, 1992, pp. 9-19. |
| Consider a database that contains names, addresses, phone numbers, and e- mail addresses of physicians in the state of Texas. This database is known to have a number of errors: some records are wrong, some are missing, and some are obsolete. If you compare the database to the true population of physicians, it is expected to be 85% accurate. If this database is to be used for the state of Texas to notify physicians of a new law regarding assisted suicide, it would certainly be considered poor quality. In fact, it would be dangerous to use it for that intended purpose.
24 2.1 Data Quality Definitions 25 If this database were to be used by a new surgical device manufacturer to find potential customers, it would be considered high quality. Any such firm would be delighted to have a potential customer database that is 85% accurate. From it, they could conduct a telemarketing campaign to identify real sales leads with a completely acceptable success rate. The same database: for one use it has poor data quality, and for another it has high data quality. |
J. E. Olson, “Data Quality: The Accuracy Dimension”, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 9 January 2003. |
| The patient’s identification details are correct and uniquely identify the patient. | P. J. Watson, “Improving Data Quality: A Guide for Developing Countries”, World Health Organization, 2003. |
The Definitions are examples of the characteristic that appear in the sources provided.
| Definition: | Source: |
|---|---|
| Determines the extent to which data objects correctly represent the real-world values for which they were designed. For example, the sales orders for the Northeast region must be assigned a Northeast sales representative. | D. McGilvray, “Executing Data Quality Projects: Ten Steps to Quality Data and Trusted Information”, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2008. |
| The data value correctly reflects the real-world condition. | B. BYRNE, J. K., D. MCCARTY, G. SAUTER, H. SMITH, P WORCESTER 2008. The information perspective of SOA design Part 6:The value of applying the data quality analysis pattern in SOA. IBM corporation. |
| The data correctly reflects the Characteristics of a Real-World Object or Event being described. Accuracy and Precision represent the highest degree of inherent Information Quality possible. | ENGLISH, L. P. 2009. Information quality applied: Best practices for improving business information, processes and systems, Wiley Publishing. |
| Is the information precise enough and close enough to reality? | EPPLER, M. J. 2006. Managing information quality: increasing the value of information in knowledge-intensive products and processes, Springer. |
| 1) Each identifiable data unit maps to the correct real-world phenomenon.
2) Non-identifying (i.e. non-key) attribute values in an identifiable data unit match the property values for the represented real-world phenomenon. 3) Each identifiable data unit represents at least one specific real-world phenomenon. 4) Each identifiable data unit represents at most one specific real-world phenomenon. |
PRICE, R. J. & SHANKS, G. Empirical refinement of a semiotic information quality framework. System Sciences, 2005. HICSS'05. Proceedings of the 38th Annual Hawaii International Conference on, 2005. IEEE, 216a-216a. |
| 1) The degree to which an information object correctly represents another information object, process, or phenomenon in the context of a particular activity or culture.
2) Closeness of agreement between a property value and the true value (value that characterizes a characteristic perfectly defined in the conditions that exists when the characteristic is considered. 3) The extent to which the correctness of information is verifiable or provable in the context of a particular activity. |
STVILIA, B., GASSER, L., TWIDALE, M. B. & SMITH, L. C. 2007. A framework for information quality assessment. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 58, 1720-1733. |